ITNSThe 2017 call for abstracts closes on Wednesday, 2 November at Midnight (CT). The ITNS Annual Symposium Planning Committee invites you to present at the 26th Annual Symposium, "Reflections of Transplant Nursing Excellence," at Buena Vista Palace Hotel & Spa, Lake Buena Vista, Fla., on 24-26 June 2017. Learn more about abstract requirements and start your submission now, and we hope to see you in 2017!

By Keith Carlson Emotional intelligence, or EI, can seem like just another buzzword to nurses who have not yet encountered the plethora of literature supporting the crucial aspects of EI in nursing, medicine, career and personal life. First mentioned in the 1960s, EI was brought into the mainstream by author Daniel Goleman with his 2005 book, "Emotional Intelligence." In the hospital, nurses are faced with ill, distressed and confused patients whose emotions are often running high.
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Medical Xpress That was a question posed by a group of investigators, including Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Ashish Shah, M.D., in a novel study that used a computerized algorithm to highlight the value of high-volume transplant centers with corresponding improved outcomes.
The study, published in The American Journal of Transplantation, is the first to look at the positive relationship between high operative volume and improved patient outcomes.READ MORE

Liver TransplantationLiver transplantation in patients with portopulmonary hypertension has historically resulted in unpredictable and often poor outcomes. The United Kingdom experience for the period 1992-2012 is reported in this paper.READ MORE

The MirrorSixteen hero Brits have saved the lives of 48 desperately sick ­strangers in an amazing chain of transplants, the Mirror can reveal.
Rule changes last year mean more healthy kidneys are available — bringing fresh hope to ­thousands of patients on the waiting list. From April 2015, it became possible for a stranger to give up a kidney and spark a series of donations. We have discovered that for each of 16 such donations, three people received a transplant.
Previously, the chain was limited to two people who were in the National Living Donor Sharing Scheme, set up to allow pooling of organs from willing donors not a match for their own sick loved ones.
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The Associated Press via CNS News Doug Grant says his new company, Hemeos, can save lives. But a proposed change in federal regulations could make his business a criminal enterprise.
The goal of Grant's D.C.-based startup company is to find matches for people who need bone-marrow transplants, particularly in the African-American community, where matches are harder to find. To do that, Grant wants to be able to pay donors, just as people are paid to donate blood plasma, eggs, or sperm.
Paying bone-marrow donors was once illegal, but federal courts ruled that compensation could be permitted in most cases. Now, though, the federal government is considering a regulatory change that would again criminalize payments.READ MORE

By Lynn Hetzler Emergency department overcrowding threatens access to healthcare and the quality of that care. It can lead to delays in analgesia, thrombolysis, antibiotic therapy, percutaneous coronary intervention and other time-sensitive treatments. However, a recent study suggests the implementation of nurse-initiated protocols, diagnostics and treatments prior to treatment from a physician or nurse practitioner can improve flow in the ED, thus reducing overcrowding.READ MORE